Topeka, Kan. (January 28, 2011) – jones huyett Partners (jhP), a regional advertising and marketing firm based in Topeka, recently added Julie Grollmes and Suzannah Johannes to the agency’s creative team as graphic designers.

Grollmes is a 2008 graduate of Missouri Western State University with a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design. Prior to working at jhP, Grollmes worked as a graphic designer at Callahan Creek advertising agency in Lawrence, Kan.

Johannes is a 2006 graduate of the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design. While at the university, she was selected as one of two university delegates to work in Halmstad, Sweden as a designer with the Summer Design Offices sponsored by the Swedish government. She most recently has worked as a freelance designer.

Established in 1987, jhP provides advertising and marketing ingenuity that builds lasting, profitable relationships in an ever-changing world. The firm crafts and executes innovative and effective communications in all media. jhP is a member of the American Advertising Federation and the American Marketing Association. Visit jhpadv.com for more information.

Life at jhP was great in 2010! Our family has been expanding – we’ve added clients and staff, so the office was overflowing with jobs and people. In fact, we grew enough to remodel our lower-level space in December to include new offices to accommodate our growing family. Check out the slide show to see our year in review.

We want to thank you for helping make 2010 an unforgettable year filled with new faces, new jobs and new fun! Our success wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the awesome friends, family and community we are proud to call our partners. Thank you – and here’s to another memorable year in 2011!

New jhP team member John Holcomb ruminates on design in the digital age.

For John Holcomb, a prolific artist and one of jhP’s newest graphic designers, good design means “solving problems as simply as possible.” However, he dislikes it when people assume “simple” means “easy.”

The 26-year-old graphic artist and illustrator approaches design as if it were a puzzle with many bits of information to decipher and piece together. Working at jhP allows John to sharpen his design and illustration skills and the elements they both share: color harmony, balance and concept.

“I am now able to split my interests in art and design into separate entities, so I can become stronger at both and burn out on neither,” John said.

John added that, for him, the most effective content and execution strikes a thoughtful balance between technology and the tactile: “There must be a way to combine the precision of digital design with the organic feel of hand-crafted art,” he said. “With so much information being broadcast, the only thing left to connect a product with its purchaser is the human element.”

John graduated from John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark., with a double major in graphic design and illustration. When he’s not at work, John enjoys following the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Chiefs and spending time with his wife, Ali, and their dieting dachshund, “Teeny Turner.”

To see more of John’s artwork – including his lighthearted series “The United Plates,” which earned him national recognition last year – visit johnholcomb.com.

Reggae

The Apprentice

The United Plates

Renée Varella joined the jhP team July 1 as a full-time copywriter. She enhances us with her strong writing and project-management skills and an acute attention to detail. We’re never letting go of her.

Have you ever accepted a belief so completely you never even probed it to make sure it was true? I recently got caught doing that in my career – and uncovered a whole new side of myself.

Let me first say that I think I know myself pretty well. I’ve learned I enjoy talking about psychology, am quite perceptive and do my best thinking when I can mull things over. I’m also a good organizer – you should see my master checklist for the camping trips my husband and I love to take!

But life can still throw me a curve. Take last winter, when a friend gave me the book Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham. As I read it – and took the online test – I discovered I’d been missing the collaborative energy of a creative team.

Not that radical a notion, you say? Well, consider that since 2006 I’d been a freelance writer and working on a lot of solitary projects. Because I am reflective, I thought I needed a career that allowed me to work alone a good deal of the time. I’d never grasped the distinction that a creative person (introspective or not) needs a synergistic team to feel engaged and inspired.

The Buckingham book helped me to understand that even though I’ve enjoyed many aspects of my career – including communication stints with non-profit organizations and as a magazine editor – I missed the lively interaction that occurs between team members working on the same projects. A good fit for me is a mix of writing and research and daily collaboration with high-energy, artistic people.

How glad I am to have joined jhP this summer, a place bubbling with imagination and playfulness – and a partnering philosophy. The team here recognizes that successful organizations play to the strengths of each team member and are most effective when people with different talents and styles are at the table.

Although I couldn’t have predicted how my life would unfold in the last year, I’m grateful for evidence of cosmic synergy. Here’s to a fresh spin on a Buddhist proverb: “When the writer is ready, the opportunity will appear.”

*I realize those closest to me may laugh at a “quiet” designation for me. I have been known to croon little ditties inspired by the messages on greeting cards and was once filled with the spirit of Janis Joplin during a home karaoke session. But don’t count on seeing me on YouTube.

The jhP team works hard together and often plays together too. Last Saturday, we celebrated the start of summer, along with family and friends, by heading to Kauffman Stadium to watch the Kansas City Royals face the Detroit Tigers. It was a hot one at the “K,” but the team had each other’s back with ice-cold beers, bottles of water and the power of the jhP positive attitude. We rooted for the home team, and their loss was a shame, but the jhP team still enjoyed taking a little time together for fun. Check out the photos above from our day at the “K.”